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AZERBAIJAN: TREATMENT OF KARABAKH VETERANS UNEQUAL
EurasiaNet.org, NY
July 12 2013
July 12, 2013 - 12:00pm, by Sitara Ibrahimova and Shahin Abbasov
Cash-rich Azerbaijan appears policy-poor when it comes to the
thousands of veterans who fought in its 1988-1994 conflict with
Armenia and ethnic Armenian separatists over the breakaway region of
Nagorno Karabakh.
Some veterans receive financial support, free medical treatment,
cars, apartments and government praise. Other veterans, though,
claim that they receive nothing and criticize the authorities for it.
The government, for its part, remains mostly silent. The Ministry of
Labor and Social Welfare, which handles veteran policy, declined to
speak with EurasiaNet.org about provisions for Karabakh veterans.
That silence, in part, reflects Azerbaijani society's own ambivalence
toward the 11,500 registered veterans of the Karabakh war, a conflict
that ended disastrously for Azerbaijan, which lost control over
20 percent of its territory and saw hundreds of thousands of its
residents displaced.
Unlike veterans in Armenia, Azerbaijani veterans do not command
political influence or hold a particularly revered status, charged
Karabakh veteran Azad Isazade, director of the Institute for
Military-Strategic Research, a Baku-based non-governmental think-tank.
"Some people, of course, show respect," said Isazade. "But there are
also those who say 'Did you need [to go to war] ? Didn't you know
that the politicians had sold Karabakh [to Armenia]?'"
Agreed Reserve Army Colonel Uzeir Jafarov: "The treatment is more
indifferent than respectful."
On paper, only one official benefit exists for registered Karabakh
veterans --free medical treatment at one of 13 specialized hospitals
and clinics nationwide. For unclear reasons, the government last May
scrapped monthly pension payments to all but disabled veterans.
Those veterans still receive a monthly pension of between 140 to 273
manats (roughly $178.48 to $348), and, by law, can receive preference
for government jobs.
Other handouts depend on the Ministry of Labor and Social Welfare's
inclinations and are not set in writing.
That lack of a systematic policy means that "[b]enefits are distributed
selectively, which creates inequality, favoritism and, likely, an
element of corruption," said the Institute for Military-Strategic
Research's Isazade.
One veterans' organization, the Union of Officers in Reserve, a
longtime defense-ministry critic, plans to sue the government for
ditching veterans' pensions. The Union's deputy chairperson, Reserve
Col. Jafarov, charged that the overall approach to veteran benefits is
"wrong" and entirely "politicized."
While "veteran organizations which praise the government" receive
benefits ranging from free houses to free cars, "those who are critical
of the government, including myself, receive nothing," he claimed.
But the chairperson of one pro-government veterans' group, Etimad
Asadov of the Karabakh Veterans' Union, asserts the contrary. Asadov
underlines that the government has given free apartments to 2,500
disabled Karabakh veterans, since the end of the war "and more will
be distributed."
It also is busy handing out cars, wheelchairs and artificial limbs,
he claimed, as well as sending veterans abroad for medical treatment;
in 2012, he said, 85 traveled to Ukraine's Crimea and 30 to Bulgaria.
Within Azerbaijan, though, such free medical care is not always
available. Local media occasionally publish appeals from Karabakh
veterans to President Aliyev asking for help with urgent medical
treatment.
One 38-eight-year-old veteran, who gave his name as Yusif, claims
that a designated medical facility in Baku has denied him free medical
treatment. "Whenever I apply there, they said there is no free place
for me," said Yusif, who lost part of his left foot in the 1993 battle
for Kelbajar, now in Armenian-occupied territory. "I have to wait."
One senior ministry of labor and social protection official, who asked
to remain anonymous, attributed that refusal to the number of veterans
who want to receive treatment in Baku rather than in the regions.
Problems with the affirmative-action program for government jobs also
persist. Disabled veteran Fakhraddin Safarov, a teacher by background
and a board member of the hard-line Karabakh Liberation Organization,
alleged that the Ministry of Education had accepted none of his job
applications since his army discharge in 1994.
The Ministry of Education did not respond to a request for comment.
Parliamentary Committee for Social Policy Chairperson Hady Rajably,
though, conceded that the hiring-quota law "is obviously not being
implemented properly."
"If the labor inspectorate of the Ministry of Labor will check,
they would see that disabled veterans do not get jobs," he added.
Further complicating matters, not all veterans of the Karabakh war
carry identity cards. Some, citing alleged bureaucratic hassles or
demands for bribes, say that they never registered.
The Karabakh Veterans' Union's Asadov places the blame for such
shortcomings on low-level bureaucrats who do not respond promptly to
veterans' problems. IMSR's Isazade sees a broader problem, however.
"[H]igh-ranking officials do not understand veterans' problems because
they don't know what it is to be a veteran," he said.
President Aliyev himself did not serve in the war. Apart from Defense
Minister Safar Abiyev, no veteran sits in Azerbaijan's cabinet of
ministers, and few exist among deputy ministers and other senior
officials. The 125-member parliament contains only one veteran,
Umid Party leader Igbal Agazade.
One analyst, though, doubts that the government wants to increase
veterans' political representation. "Potentially, it is a powerful
group of protest voters, and the government, while helping financially,
is trying to keep veterans outside of politics," argued Avaz
Hasanov, head of the Society for Humanitarian Research, a Baku-based
non-governmental organization which researches veteran issues.
Succeeding with any such task would mean making veterans happy. With
one eye on October's presidential election, government officials now
have begun to promise solutions for veterans' problems.
In late May, Ali Hasanov, the influential head of the presidential
administration's political and public affairs department, admitted that
Karabakh war veterans do not always have a place to live or receive
proper medical treatment. He described the resolution of these issues
as "of the utmost importance" for the government, according to APA
news agency.
As yet, though, no comprehensive reform program exists.
Editor's Note: Shahin Abbasov is a freelance correspondent based in
Baku. Sitara Ibrahimova is a freelance photojournalist based in Baku.
http://www.eurasianet.org/node/67236
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress
EurasiaNet.org, NY
July 12 2013
July 12, 2013 - 12:00pm, by Sitara Ibrahimova and Shahin Abbasov
Cash-rich Azerbaijan appears policy-poor when it comes to the
thousands of veterans who fought in its 1988-1994 conflict with
Armenia and ethnic Armenian separatists over the breakaway region of
Nagorno Karabakh.
Some veterans receive financial support, free medical treatment,
cars, apartments and government praise. Other veterans, though,
claim that they receive nothing and criticize the authorities for it.
The government, for its part, remains mostly silent. The Ministry of
Labor and Social Welfare, which handles veteran policy, declined to
speak with EurasiaNet.org about provisions for Karabakh veterans.
That silence, in part, reflects Azerbaijani society's own ambivalence
toward the 11,500 registered veterans of the Karabakh war, a conflict
that ended disastrously for Azerbaijan, which lost control over
20 percent of its territory and saw hundreds of thousands of its
residents displaced.
Unlike veterans in Armenia, Azerbaijani veterans do not command
political influence or hold a particularly revered status, charged
Karabakh veteran Azad Isazade, director of the Institute for
Military-Strategic Research, a Baku-based non-governmental think-tank.
"Some people, of course, show respect," said Isazade. "But there are
also those who say 'Did you need [to go to war] ? Didn't you know
that the politicians had sold Karabakh [to Armenia]?'"
Agreed Reserve Army Colonel Uzeir Jafarov: "The treatment is more
indifferent than respectful."
On paper, only one official benefit exists for registered Karabakh
veterans --free medical treatment at one of 13 specialized hospitals
and clinics nationwide. For unclear reasons, the government last May
scrapped monthly pension payments to all but disabled veterans.
Those veterans still receive a monthly pension of between 140 to 273
manats (roughly $178.48 to $348), and, by law, can receive preference
for government jobs.
Other handouts depend on the Ministry of Labor and Social Welfare's
inclinations and are not set in writing.
That lack of a systematic policy means that "[b]enefits are distributed
selectively, which creates inequality, favoritism and, likely, an
element of corruption," said the Institute for Military-Strategic
Research's Isazade.
One veterans' organization, the Union of Officers in Reserve, a
longtime defense-ministry critic, plans to sue the government for
ditching veterans' pensions. The Union's deputy chairperson, Reserve
Col. Jafarov, charged that the overall approach to veteran benefits is
"wrong" and entirely "politicized."
While "veteran organizations which praise the government" receive
benefits ranging from free houses to free cars, "those who are critical
of the government, including myself, receive nothing," he claimed.
But the chairperson of one pro-government veterans' group, Etimad
Asadov of the Karabakh Veterans' Union, asserts the contrary. Asadov
underlines that the government has given free apartments to 2,500
disabled Karabakh veterans, since the end of the war "and more will
be distributed."
It also is busy handing out cars, wheelchairs and artificial limbs,
he claimed, as well as sending veterans abroad for medical treatment;
in 2012, he said, 85 traveled to Ukraine's Crimea and 30 to Bulgaria.
Within Azerbaijan, though, such free medical care is not always
available. Local media occasionally publish appeals from Karabakh
veterans to President Aliyev asking for help with urgent medical
treatment.
One 38-eight-year-old veteran, who gave his name as Yusif, claims
that a designated medical facility in Baku has denied him free medical
treatment. "Whenever I apply there, they said there is no free place
for me," said Yusif, who lost part of his left foot in the 1993 battle
for Kelbajar, now in Armenian-occupied territory. "I have to wait."
One senior ministry of labor and social protection official, who asked
to remain anonymous, attributed that refusal to the number of veterans
who want to receive treatment in Baku rather than in the regions.
Problems with the affirmative-action program for government jobs also
persist. Disabled veteran Fakhraddin Safarov, a teacher by background
and a board member of the hard-line Karabakh Liberation Organization,
alleged that the Ministry of Education had accepted none of his job
applications since his army discharge in 1994.
The Ministry of Education did not respond to a request for comment.
Parliamentary Committee for Social Policy Chairperson Hady Rajably,
though, conceded that the hiring-quota law "is obviously not being
implemented properly."
"If the labor inspectorate of the Ministry of Labor will check,
they would see that disabled veterans do not get jobs," he added.
Further complicating matters, not all veterans of the Karabakh war
carry identity cards. Some, citing alleged bureaucratic hassles or
demands for bribes, say that they never registered.
The Karabakh Veterans' Union's Asadov places the blame for such
shortcomings on low-level bureaucrats who do not respond promptly to
veterans' problems. IMSR's Isazade sees a broader problem, however.
"[H]igh-ranking officials do not understand veterans' problems because
they don't know what it is to be a veteran," he said.
President Aliyev himself did not serve in the war. Apart from Defense
Minister Safar Abiyev, no veteran sits in Azerbaijan's cabinet of
ministers, and few exist among deputy ministers and other senior
officials. The 125-member parliament contains only one veteran,
Umid Party leader Igbal Agazade.
One analyst, though, doubts that the government wants to increase
veterans' political representation. "Potentially, it is a powerful
group of protest voters, and the government, while helping financially,
is trying to keep veterans outside of politics," argued Avaz
Hasanov, head of the Society for Humanitarian Research, a Baku-based
non-governmental organization which researches veteran issues.
Succeeding with any such task would mean making veterans happy. With
one eye on October's presidential election, government officials now
have begun to promise solutions for veterans' problems.
In late May, Ali Hasanov, the influential head of the presidential
administration's political and public affairs department, admitted that
Karabakh war veterans do not always have a place to live or receive
proper medical treatment. He described the resolution of these issues
as "of the utmost importance" for the government, according to APA
news agency.
As yet, though, no comprehensive reform program exists.
Editor's Note: Shahin Abbasov is a freelance correspondent based in
Baku. Sitara Ibrahimova is a freelance photojournalist based in Baku.
http://www.eurasianet.org/node/67236
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress